Tempe’s thrifting circuit lost a checkpoint April 23, when Tiedemann’s Family Thrift & Vintage officially closed its doors.
The store, located on Baseline and Hardy roads, offered dirt-cheap prices on a rotating, random assortment of vintage and name-brand clothing for five years.
But the property was too small and the lease too expensive to renew, says Tony Tiedemann, founder of the parent company Tiedemann Globe.
He says the company, which also does business in wholesale vintage, industrial rags and clean-energy solutions, hopes to provide better overall service to customers by closing the small outlet shop in favor of its bulk warehouse in Phoenix (Buckeye Road and 47th Avenue) and new online retailer, Raghouse.com.
If students stick with the company, Tiedemann says they’ll be rewarded with reduced prices and instant feedback. For example, Tiedemann Globe has lowered the minimum customer buy price at their warehouse from $800 to $200, he says, just so give former Family Thrift loyalists a fair shake.
But Tiedemann recognizes that these new options just aren’t the same as a convenient, quirky, charming outlet store in between a Food City and a pizza parlor.
“The casual customer who goes into the store once a month [just] to buy a shirt, they’re going to have a hard time now,” he says.
Ellen Reisland, thrift store manager for thrift store Arc of Tempe, says Tiedemann’s Family Thrift was “right in the loop” of top destinations for area bargain-hunters. But she says the store’s closing probably won’t have a big effect on the local thrifting scene. Poor location, plus the company’s reliance on sales and profits, is probably what doomed Tiedemann’s in a struggling but surviving industry, she says.
“A few years back, when things started going really poorly for the economy, it was bad” for thrift stores, Reisland says. “But lately, things have evened out.”
Arc of Tempe, a non-profit that benefits people with developmental disabilities, was buoyed through the recession by a loyal donation base and a community trust built over 30 years.
“I think people buy into who we are and what we do,” she says. “People feel good about donating and shopping here.”
But ASU speech pathology senior Sarah Schulhauser feels good about shopping at Tiedemann’s Family Thrift & Vintage. Ever since she first learned of the store in a newspaper article last summer, she says she’s returned every few weeks to hunt for vintage dresses and other thrift-worthy knick-knacks.
“Half my closet is [Tiedemann’s vintage],” she says. Most clothing items she has bought at the store cost around $5, “which is really nice for a student budget.”
The $200 purchasing minimum at the Tiedemann Globe warehouse? Not so easy on a student's budget. “I don’t think I could spend $200 at once,” Schulhauser says. “I just like the hunt, not so much going to buy stuff.”
This is what she and perhaps other Sun Devils will miss most — a unique place in Tempe where you can hunt through vintage clothes, try them on first, and have an all-around enjoyable thrifting experience.
Schulhauser plans to capitalize on Tiedemann’s close-out sales, but she’s sad to lose her favorite thrift store.
“My wardrobe is certainly going to suffer,” she says.
Students and families, two of Family Thrift’s best customer bases, will probably get hit hardest by the shutdown, says Tiedemann’s sales and marketing associate Kristen Foht.
“It’s really sad,” she says of the store closing, “but it’s what we had to do, and I can’t question that, because [company management] are the ones who look at the numbers.”
But the store is trying to keep in touch with their customers as much as possible, Fuht adds, to ease the process and provide updates via social media and their website.
Tiedemann Globe is trying to keep as many employees within the organization as possible, Fuht says. Some of her co-workers have already started working at the warehouse or moved on to other things, while she works part time for the company’s online marketing campaign. Family Thrift and its customers may have been her favorite part of Tiedemann Globe, but Fuht says she’d like to stick with the organization as long as possible.
“I’m still a little hesitant to go back into office [work], if I can help it,” she says, between ringing up sales of quirky, inexpensive clothes, to small families at the cash register. “I’m actually more upset that the store is closing than that I’m losing my job.”
Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.
For more information or to offer suggestions, contact info@tiedemannglobe.com
